Banker Alexi Giannoulias -- the Democratic nominee for state treasurer -- is accused of approving a $1 million loan to an 86-year-old mentally incompetent woman whose "business partners" have been suspected of fraud in the past.[***]Additionally, Giannoulias wrote a letter to Billings, expressing his concern to her about their history, recommending she hire an attorney to help review the documents.

However, attorney Peter King, representing Billings' estate, which filed the suit against Broadway, called that "a self-serving letter written simply to cover his own behind."

The suit marks the second time questions have been raised about bank loans tied to Giannoulias.

Corruption is rampant in Illinois and it's mostly among Democrats because that's mostly what we have.

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comments:

Bill, if you want to start a thread about Alexi Giannoulias, I would understand. But you had to stray into national politics with this “culture of defeat” crap at the end of your post. The last time I looked, this blog was called Illinoize, not Iraqize. Why can’t you play by the rules and stick with local and state politics?

It ain't the laws that were or weren't broken -- it's the obvious lack of ethics.

If you're going to talk Washington Bill, then let's point out it is the Democrats who voted to remove one of their own from his committee seat because of the current evidence against him (even before a court proceeding) as opposed to the conservatives who come to the immediate defense of their questionable ethics...

Anyone can buy and sell land, even land near a proposed highway.

Only a select few can actually make that proposed highway get built through Federal dollars and then sell their land 3 months later.... and of those select few, only one is Speaker of the United States House of "Representatives".

What sort of ethical credo is Denny "representing", and why are you so willing to be part of his "culture of covering one's tail"?

(Either that, or Denny Hastert is so lucky he ought to try the Lotto or a riverboat casino -- he's got *impeccable* timing.)

The Feds are out for money laundrying, and there's lots & lots to look at over at Broadway Bank.

Just ask the folks at ABN AMRO LaSalle Bank. Back in 2001 they got a little loose with their dealings, then in 2003 they got "religion" big time, since then they've spent an absolute ton of money on revamping internal systems, a number of high ranking people at AMRO and LaSalle got chopped, and lastly, back in December, 2005, AMRO, the Dutch parent of LaSalle Bank Corp. agreed to pay $80 million in civil penalties in connection with violations of anti-money-laundering regulations.

And guess what, they're still not out of the woods yet with the Feds.

As for Alex and Broadway Bank, pay close attention to those who went before you - it's instructive in what you can expect to face down the road.

Make sure Denny buys a few acres near any such proposed bridge across the Fox and ... lo and behold a few years later you'll get funding for a bridge or two. And then Denny will sell his land three months later and make a million bucks.

To those who accuse Americans who want a change of course in Iraq of being part of a 'culture of defeat':

"He’s sitting in his air-conditioned office on his big, fat backside-saying stay the course. That’s not a plan!

"We've got to change direction. You can't sit there in the air-conditioned office and tell troops carrying seventy pounds on their backs, inside these armored vessels-hit with IED's every day-seeing their friends blown up-their buddies blown up-and he says stay the course?"

-- John Murtha speaking about Karl Rove on NBC's Meet the Press, 18JUN06

Murtha's plan is better than Bush's. If we're gonna lose, we might as well get our troops out of Iraq and put them on the border to contain the violence.

The best plan though is to fire Rumsfeld, send in 100+K more troops to actually win the war and permanently secure areas after terrorists have been cleared out, and to use the troops effectively rather than to test Don's silly military theories. However, George Bush is more committed to staying the course than winning the war.

President Bush sneaks into Iraq for five hours and then leaves. What does that action tell the Iraqi people and particularly insurgents and terrorists? What does it tell our troops? It’s pretty clear, that politics are more important than winning the war. Agree with the above, either we substantially increase troop levels or we announce a date for leaving. No more brave American soldiers should die to support a “culture of incompetence.”

Please, put down the mouse, stand up from the keyboard, leave your home and go volunteer at Hines VA Hospital for a while. Those brave and honorable young men and women fought for your right to NOT serve and instead sit in your air-conditioned office on your big, fat backside saying stay the course, to paraphrase a veteran who served honorably and with distinction.

Does it make me such a bad person to believe that if the Iraqi people wanted to be liberated, they should have done it themselves, with us only supporting after resistance movements started?

That being said, perhaps we did owe them liberation because of the disgusting sanctions we put on the country. Those sanctions killed Civil society in Iraq and are the main reason that there was such a power vacuum after Saddam's fall. If the sanctions were not in place, Saddam would have likely been overthrown in the 1990s internally.

Sanctions never work, and they always help dictators and hurt citizens. Cuba is the most obvious example today.

lllinoize is about the free expression of divergent ideas. Opinions expressed on this blog are those of the authors only. Any disputes, factual or otherwise, should be addressed to the bloggers themselves, who are solely responsible for their posts